The story of the Otago Infantry Regiment and Otago Mounted Rifles in WW1 is a tale of courage, endurance and tragedy spanning over 5 years. Sadly for today’s residents south of the Waitaki, it is a relatively unknown story. As the centennial of WW1 approaches, the Otago Settlers Association in conjunction with Toitū Otago Settlers Museum is creating a video series of short documentaries which follow in the footsteps of our region’s service personnel, sharing a story which should not be forgotten.
Follow us as, 100-years later, we attempt to retrace the steps of the Otago Infantry Regiment and Otago Mounted Rifles
Journey of the Otagos 
Nice site .My grandfather and his brothers were in ww1 from southland. SELBY , Harold and Ernest were well known in the district.
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I have only just discovered this site. I am very interested in Otago Battalion because my grandfather and his brother – Frank and Clive Statham were with Otago and were killed on Chunuk Bair. Have been trying to get a full understanding of Otago’s role and this series of stories has covered it.. I would like to be in contact with the author!
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Hello Janet. I actually wrote a brief story about the Statham brothers for a blog run by the WW100 organisation on Otago’s unsung heroes at Gallipoli: http://ww100.govt.nz/'needless-to-say-we-hung-on…’-the-otagos-at-gallipoli
Hope you enjoy that too.
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Thank you so much for directing me to the wonderful work you have done. I wish I had tracked you down earlier. The journey of Frank and Clive Statham is very important to me, and it is great to see it written about. I was at Gallipoli in August 2015, and at Chunuk Bair at dawn on 9th August 2015 to remember 100 years since their deaths. It was my third visit to Gallipoli, the first one being in 1974, when my father asked me and my sister to try to find Frank’s grave. This was at a time that no-one was interested in Gallipoli. I was at the Dunedin Anzac Dawn Service in April 2014 – you were probably there. Would like to meet you some time. (I live in Australia, but have frequent visits to NZ). Best wishes, Janet Statham
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Sean, many thanks for pointing me in this direction at Cromwell yesterday. The excellent coverage of the battlefields is very interesting and highly useful. Best regards, John Barham
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So excited to have found this site. I am writing an account of my grandfather, Corporal Croydon Lee (4th Otago Regiment.). He travelled to France with the 21st Reinforcments in 1917 and fought with them in France. Looking forward to reading this blog!
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Is it ok to ask if I could get a copy of the timetable you mentioned Will has made of where the Otago Battalions were throughout the war? Cheers.
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Sure. Just send me an email address to send it to. I’ll have to fossick around to find the file though as we did that three years ago. I expect I’ll still have a copy.
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I would very much like a copy of that time table too if you were able to locate it
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Dear Andrea, I’m currently overseas on another “Journey” documentary project but if you send an email of your request to my Toitū email address sean.brosnahan@dcc.govt.nz I will sort this out for you when I get back to the Museum in July.
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Great videos, thank you. My great uncle Arthur Elias Wilson was killed in the Somme, it’s interesting but devastating to know where he was, and I feel like I was there with him..cheers
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My Grandfather Trooper John McLauchlan enlisted in the Southland Mounted Rifles and after Gallipolli he was transferred to the Otago Mounted Rifles. He was wounded in action. M I A and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal which he received from Queen Mary in England he was a dispatch rider out of Headquarters and was given the title of Corporal while there which was later put back to Trooper when he rejoined his company Otago Mounted I have no information as to why he was awarded that particular medal are YOU able to help at all.
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Dear Annette. You should check Wayne McDonald’s book “Honours and awards to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War”, which is an alphabetical listing of award winners, that notes rank, regiment, citations (with original Gazette references). There is also a book specifically on the MSM recipients (at least I think it applies to what you are talking about): Chamberlain, H.E. “Service lives remembered: the Meritorious Service Medal in New Zealand and its recipients”. Alphabetical listing, with comprehensive biographies and service details of award winners.
I think it likely that it was in recognition of his despatch riding service at 2 ANZAC HQ rather than for gallantry, as this was the sort of thing that most of the MSMs seem to have been presented for. Don Mackay lists the OMR’s decoration recipients in an appendix to The Trooper’s Tale and lists John. He further notes that it was a rare decoration, just four being awarded to OMR men but he doesn’t detail any act of gallantry or anything else relating to John McLaughlan in the rest of the book .
One little point of clarification. The 7th Southland Mounted Rifles Regiment of the pre-war Territorial Force became the 7th Southland Squadron of the Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment once the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was created and it is this squadron that your grandfather joined as a Main Body man in August 1914. The night before they left Dunedin in September 1914 the Squadron presented a signed scroll to the Otago Women’s Patriotic Association in gratitude for all the work the women had done for the men at the Early Settlers Hall (now Toitu) while they were training in Dunedin. It has the signature of every member of the Squadron and a group photograph of them at the top. We had this item on loan for last year’s “The Women’s War” exhibition but it has now been transferred to the Southland Museum in Invercargill. But if you contact me at the museum I might be able to find a photograph of it.
There is one other odd thing about your grandfather’s service record – it has two different service numbers on it. The first one 9/235 is an OMR one (the Main Body OMR men’s numbers all started with the 9/ to indicate this Regiment). But there is also a reference to 15/235a and a note that his records have all been changed to the 9/235 at Base records. The 15/ number indicates NZEF Headquarters staff but men usually stuck with their original enlistment number whatever subsequent transfers went on. Maybe there was a brief period where they changed the numbers instead and your grandfather is one of the cases where this happened. I hope that’s helpful.
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For some reason my grandfather was attached to headquarters for awhile and was given the title Corporal while there he went back to a private when he returned to his own regiment.
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It was the MMS which is no longer awarded to ordinary soldiers I think it’s reserved for officers.
9/235 Left NZ 15 Oct 1914
Disembarked Alexandria 4 Dec 1914
Returned to NZ 1918 and finally discharged in Sep 1919
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Hi Sean,
A very interesting site you’ve put together and I look forward to exploring it more fully in future. In the meantime I wonder if you could offer a bit of advice. I stumbled on your site while looking on-line for info on the activities of the Otago regiment in July 2016. The official history of the unit has much to say about the Somme battles in September 2016 but the only reference to June/July I could see was ‘a few raiding parties’. I’ve long known of my great-uncle who was killed on July 5th 1916 while serving in 14th Co, 2 Bn OIR, but have often wondered if I could discover what activity the Bn was up to on those days that resulted in his death. Other than the fact that he’s buried in Cite Bonjean cemetery and his service record noted that he was buried by a Rev (name is a bit undecipherable) there’s nothing in the family history that sheds any light on the circumstances of his death, which occurred just a few days after joining the unit. The fact that he was buried at least demonstrated he didn’t disappear in a muddy hole or was vapourised by artillery and end up on the memorial to the missing. So I wondered if in the course of your research you’d seen any documents that might provide more detailed information on the actions that the Bn was involved in – to see if I can follow up and find out more details about his death?
Cheers
Keith
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Dear Keith
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to look through this blog by now and maybe also checked out the relevant JOTO episodes on YouTube. If so, you’ll probably have a better idea of the context of your great-uncle’s death in July 1916. The most exact data on the 2nd Battalion’s doings at that point will be found in the Battalion war diary, which is at National Archives in Wellington. I copied select samples of the Otago battalions’ war diaries a few years ago but I don’t seem to have July 1916 for the 2nd Battalion. I do have June though and it records how they were on trench duty and experiencing heavy bombardments that saw a steady attrition with men being killed for wounded from the shelling on a daily basis. A trench raid amplified this considerably of course but even if your uncle wasn’t involved in one of those, the everyday shelling being experienced by them in the Houpline sector just in front of Armentieres would account for his death.
To get a qualitative idea of what he was experiencing at this time, I recommend you read Alexander Aitken’s classic account ‘Gallipoli to the Somme: recollections of a New Zealand infantryman”, which was recently republished and is a great read. Aitken was in the 1st Otago Battalion I think but the two battalions were swapping about in the same small area of trenches, along with other New Zealand infantry battalions, so his detailed outline of their daily activity, and of what raiding entailed, will give you a very good idea of what your great uncle experienced.
I hope that is of some help.
Seán
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Hi Seán,
Many thanks for your reply. We do know he was killed at Houplines (from his service record) so as you say could well have been part of the general attrition of units from daily shelling in that sector.
I’ve got a 1st ed of Aitken’s book that I haven’t read in probably 25 years so that’s a good reminder to have a re-read of that. I understand the recent reprint has some more info in the appendices so will try and look out for a copy of that too. I guess my great uncle didn’t get much chance to experience the daily life of the battalion – he joined the unit on June 27th and dead on July 5th. His 2 brothers survived the war from 1916-18 and returned to NZ, although both rather full of holes.
I’m based o’seas these days but will try and follow up at National Archives when next in Wgtn – thanks for the pointer in that direction. I’ve not yet had a chance to look up the JOTO clips on Youtube but look forward to doing so.
Thanks again for your help.
Keith
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Hey Sean, would you have anything on James Sinton of the Otago Mounted Rifles. He died 101 and opened up in his later years and talked to me alot about his experiences. He served at Gallipoli, France and Belgium. Thanks mate.
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Dear Murray
You can check out his service record which is available online from National Archives: https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=7817737&digital=yes
James was born at Tinaroto in 1894 and was working as a shepherd for H M Bayly at Okare, Omahanui (inland from Gisborne) when he enlisted in February 1915. He got to Gallipoli as a reinforcement in November 1915 and was part of the evacuation in December. After the reorganisation of the NZEF back in Egypt he set sail for France with the OMR in April 1916. He then had a few temporary postings with the HQ of the 1st Anzac Light Horse Regiment and the 2nd Anzac Mounted HQ, got VD in late 1916 and was treated. In 1917 he was transferred to the HQ of the XII Corps and was groom for the Corps CO (which at that point would have been General Godley), and then overstayed a leave in 1918 that got him a sentence of 7 days Field Punishment No 1 and loss of pay. Otherwise he seems to have avoided serious illness or wounding. He sailed home from Britain in March 1919 and was discharged. He lost his service medals in a house fire in 1932 and requested replacements in 1988.
It would be interesting to know what he had to say about Godley.
regards
Seán
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My Great Great Grandfather served in the 12th Otago Mounted riflemen and in 1917 served in the NZFA after his horses being killed and him badly wounded
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Hi
I’m looking for Private Thomas Meikle photo. He arrived in NZ from Scotland, enlisting with Otago regiment soon after. Sadly he died from wounds, buried in France. Where would you look for a photo?
Thanks
Julie
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Dear Julie
Sorry for the delay in replying; I overlooked this. I’ve checked our holdings at Toitu where we assembled a collection of all the photos of casualties that were published in the Otago Witness newspaper during the war. These were supplied to the paper by relatives and there are hundreds and hundreds of them. But none for Thomas Meikle. Maybe that was because of the recent arrival from Scotland and I see that his next-of-kin on his service record is a brother still in Scotland so that would reduce the likelihood of a photo being supplied in Dunedin. That means your only real hope would be from members of the family, and if that includes you, tracing other branches who might have held on to a photo if one was taken.
I see from Tom Meikle’s entry on the Cenotaph database that there is a reference to his death in Alexander Aitken’s famous book and that there are other researchers who contributed to the entry (Noel George Smith and Lyn Griffiths) so check that out if you haven’t already. Here’s the Aitken reference:
“Three of the four days were fairly quiet. In the day-time a few sentries kept look-out from the bays while the rest slept; in the night-time everyone had to be on the fire-step under full equipment until Stand-to in the chilly dawn. Trenches here were very tumble-down, and enfilading machine-gun fire dropping at long range actually came from behind – so extreme was the curvature of the salient – and had wounded two officers of the Company we relieved, the 4th Company, at the dug-out entrance; snipers were active and had already killed a tall officer of the same Company, Mr Hall, popular in the 6th Reinforcements, in the front line. Stale, foul-smelling water from the winter rains stagnated in the floor of the trenches under the rotting duckboards, and there was a pump for removing this over the parados to the muddy unsightly terrain, full of stinking pools in shell holes large or small, that lay between the front and the support line. Our dug-outs were on the edge of this morass, low shelters topped with old sand-bags or corrugated iron. Large, well-conditioned rats infested the line at nights, scamperingd along parapets or gnawing at haversacks in the dug-outs, supplementing their vampire meal. But the line was quiet, quiet in no Remarqian sense; there was no shelling here, nothing but the echo-awakening crackle of Parapet Joe and the hiss of rising flare-lights, soaring to their parabolic apex and shedding a bluish or greenish light over no-man’s land. Our own flares seemed inferior to those of the enemy; we fired them up rarely and almost apologetically; indeed, we generally left the illumination of no-man’s-land to the Germans, who had excellent flares, sometimes with parachtues attached, below which they might swing gracefully for what seemed a full minute.
On the morning of the third day, 28th May, if my reckoning is right, shrapnel came over early, killing Tom Wilson, one of the the men who had been with me in those last days on Rhododendron Ridge, mortally wounding Tom Meikle of the 7th Reinforcements on the same fire-step, and sparing Tom McCone, who had been sitting between the other two.”
I hope that is helpful.
Seán
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I have been watching the JOTO documentaries on U-tube and was very happy to find them. My great uncle john Stewart james was a soldier with the otago infantry main body and I read all I can in the hopes of learning anything at all about him since he is among the ‘missing, presumed dead’. Thank you for doing all the research involved.
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